Visiting United Nations (UN) Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen said on Sunday that he discussed in Syria “the very serious social, economic and humanitarian challenges” facing its people.
The meeting of the Syrian Constitutional Committee slated for May 28 in Geneva was also touched upon during the visit, Pedersen told reporters after his meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad.
“I’m also hopeful that that will be a positive meeting that can help us to bring us forward so that we can start to see the different aspects of the crisis. We now see some confidence-building measures, that would be a key also to further the implementation of Security Council Resolution 2254,” said Pedersen.
In the upcoming Geneva meeting, 50 members of civil society, 50 members of the government, and 50 members of the opposition will gather together for a new round of talks as part of the UN-facilitated committee’s job to propose an amendment or rewrite the constitution of Syria.
The UN envoy also said he was briefed on the recent Syrian presidential amnesty setting free prisoners charged with terrorist acts that didn’t cause killings, adding “amnesty has potential.”
